Attracting female employees involves making your shop a better workplace for everyone

Aug. 3, 2018
Here are some steps, provided by experts, you can take to make your shop the kind of business and workplace that draws in more women and ultimately men as well.

What are the two most common refrains in today’s collision repair industry? Probably these:

  1. We need more customers.
  2. We need more quality employees.

Finding responses to either can take a shop down a number of different, complex roads. Or you could stick to a single path and resolve both with one solution: focus on women.

Want more business? Women account for 62 percent of all new car buyers and make 85 percent of all car buying decision (according to Edmunds). They also spend over $300 billion annually on vehicle repairs. Looking for great hires? Studies show female employees bring huge returns in two particular areas: productivity and innovation.

(Photo courtesy of Mayfield Collision Centers) Adding more women to your staff can bring benefits such as better communication, improved customer service, increased productivity and an infusion of new ideas. Attracting them means making your shop a better workplace for everyone.

A recent study by the International Finance Corporation detailed the benefits of incorporating more women in a workforce:

  • Better access to required skillsets, from entry levels to senior positions.
  • Improved team dynamics. Women tend to focus more on cooperation and drawing employees together.
  • Long-term employees. Female employees multi-task and multi-focus better and thus are more willing to take over other positions, reducing the need to bring in additional hires.
  • Upgraded work environments. Women can provide greater empathy, allowing them to focus more on individual needs. They also tend to communicate more effectively. (Could your management and customer service talent sets stand a significant upgrade here?)

The really good news: Women want to bring you their business and employment skills.

So why isn’t an army of women beating down your doors right now to make your business better?

Possibly because you haven’t taken the necessary steps to draw them in. Collision repair has long been a man’s world. Unfortunately, that’s sometimes meant too often overlooking the contributions women make and their potential to transform the repair industry for the better. Turn that around, and you could be writing your shop a ticket to a better tomorrow.

Here are some steps, provided by experts, you can take to make your shop the kind of business and workplace that draws in more women and ultimately men as well.

(Photo courtesy of G&C Auto Body) Women have complained for decades about feeling intimidated and uncomfortable in auto service centers. Help change these perceptions with customer areas that are warm and welcoming. Make sure your staff adopts these same qualities as well.

Learn and live the basics
When it comes to gender relations, what might your shop be doing wrong that needs to be fixed immediately? Start by considering the input of a successful woman who knows the industry inside and out.

Angi Semler-Welch has more than 20 years' experience working in and around the automotive service businesses. She graduated from tech school and holds a BA degree in Journalism and an MBA. She’s written and edited volumes of articles for both ABRN and Motor Age (ABRN's sister publication for the service repair industry) and served as both a customer service rep and operations manager for nearly a decade at an extremely successful Chicago-area shop. Most recently, she founded and serves as president of Jumpdog Marketing, which provides digital marketing solutions for auto repairers and other industries.

Semler-Welch says that as shops ramp up efforts to be more female friendly, some honest self-evaluation is in order. Specifically, does anyone at your shop commit any of the following:

  • Use terms of endearment—e.g. dear, babe, sweetheart, honey. Someone saying these (including female employees) might mean well, but in today’s world these words are patronizing and, as such, unprofessional. Would you say them to a male customer or coworker?
  • Use crude language. This means anywhere in a shop. If your estimator is up front trying to converse with a client and your crew is in the back swearing or carrying on like a rowdy bunch of school kids, it’s not going to send a good message.
  • Talking down to customers or staff members. Would you do business with anyone who questioned your intelligence or treated you like a child?
  • Act or respond to questions/comments impatiently. This includes interrupting others when they’re trying to speak (even if you think finishing someone’s sentences is the quickest way to resolve an issue). Want to come off as an uncaring and untrustworthy? This is just the trick. There probably isn’t a faster way to chase off business.
  • Be careless with jokes. Everyone wants an enjoyable workplace, and an injection of humor can work wonders with customers and staff. It’s also can be risky. Humor is all about being subversive, turning logic and popular notions on their heads. What one-person thinks is innocent fun can be entirely offensive to another. Does your staff say things in jest that could easily turn off someone else?
  • Post calendars, screen savers or posters of scantily clad women. A shop is a business, not a fraternity house. Remove anything like this immediately.
  • Roaming eyes. This may seem crass but keep all looks at eye level. Making eye contact while speaking to someone is central to being a professional. Anything less is unacceptable (along with potentially being offensive).

There’s a good chance your shop isn’t guilty of any of these. But if you feel there might be areas that need to be addressed, they need to be taken care of now. Set rules against this behavior, and make sure they’re adhered to strictly.

Act today

After acknowledging the behaviors that need to stop, your next step is taking proactive measures to ensure your shop is a great place for female customers and staff. Where do you start here?

According to Bogi Lateiner, owner of 180 Degrees Automotive in Phoenix and host of the TV program “All Girls Garage” says your goal is making make your business a great place for everyone--women and men.

(Photo courtesy of Chantilly Auto Body) Looking for ways to improve work life and reach out to female customers? Reach out to your female staff members who can provide valuable insights and directions.

Lateiner has experienced first-hand the negative attitudes and experiences women face in the auto services industry. After graduating from Oberlin College with the intent to attend law school, she took a detour to Arizona to enroll in a technical college. Her interest in auto repair grew from her teenage years that she spent repairing a Volkswagen Beetle. Lateiner performed much of her own work after encountering off-putting, dismissive behavior from local shops. She went on to earn both the ASE Master Tech rating and the prestigious status of being a BMW technician but still had difficulty finding employment since shops were reluctant to hire her. Today, she’s an owner on a mission to make the industry a great place in large part by making it a great place for women.

That begins at the ground level, with shops raising their professional standards—something the industry needs to do if it has any hope of attracting sufficient numbers of workers. Lateiner says it comes down to reputation. “We can’t expect people to recommend an automotive career for their sons and daughters if they have low regard for this industry,” she says. “You aren’t to draw people if they aren’t convinced this is a terrific place to be.”

For her part, Lateiner is drawing in more women and nontraditional workers with an apprentice program that actively engages female hires (men are welcome too). Her shop also holds Under the Hood Car Care Classes designed to introduce women to the concept of basic care and handling of automotive vehicles. On the national level, she created the Chevy Montage project for SEMA where she and more than 70 women restored a ’57 Chevy truck and paired it with a BMW engine. The all-women team consists of both experts in the automotive field and newbies.

Lateiner encourages her fellow shop owners looking for new hires to similarly consider women of all experience levels who show strong interest in the work. “Attitude and interest are really the strongest predictors of whether someone is going to succeed,” she says.

Keeping an open mind on new hires is something you can do as well, along with investing in an apprentice system that puts a premium on enthusiasm and open welcomes women and men. Car care classes also are a great idea to attract female customers and potential hires. In fact, a number of other shops already host them. There are plenty of other steps you can take.

Semler Welch recommends reaching out to current female staff members and clients for ideas. She suggests asking, “What can we do to save them time, money or effort?” She adds, “We are all busy these days, but women tend to feel more taxed than their male counterparts and assume they have no downtime if they’re a working parent. Time, lack of hassles and convenience are everything to them. Look for ways you can modify your processes or service experience to make it incredibly easy to do business with them.”

(Photo courtesy of Lefler Collision and Glass) Outreach efforts such as women’s car clinics and child safety seat assistance can be great ways to being in more female customers and potential hires.

She also recommends reaching out to women’s community organizations. “Go to mom groups, professional groups, business owner groups, local schools, etc. Get out there and be visible so they think of you when they’re in an accident,” she says.

In the shop

As you bring in female workers and attempt to retain those on staff, take some additional steps to continue transforming your workplace.

Kathy Gilbert, Founding Board member of Women in Automotive and Director of Sales and Business Development at CDK Global, gives this advice:

  • Encourage involvement in networking. The Women’s Industry Network (WIN) is a prime place for networking and support (and accepts both female and male members). There are plenty of other professional women’s groups with members from inside and outside automotive services. Consider Women in Automotive (WIA), Automotive News Leading Women Network, AWAF! (Automotive Women's Alliance Foundation) and Women in Auto Care. Keep in mind that you’ll need to free up employee schedules so they can take part in these groups.
  • As part of your community outreach, consider working with a charity that promotes women's causes, such as Every Mother Counts or women’s scholarships.
  • Reassess your benefits. Look for a benefits program that reflects what women want. Also look into professional development programs and paid time-off for volunteering at local charitable events.
  • Provide a path. Gilbert says businesses must commit to balanced, fair hiring and employment opportunities. From there, set and enforce professional standards that protect employees.  Petra Schroeder, Immediate Past Chair of WIN, says shops need to set expectations. 

One more piece of direction, Carolyn Hosna, senior corporate director of marketing of White Lodging and founder of WL Women, says put your initiative in writing. She also says businesses must take the time to ensure all employees always feel appreciated and welcomed.

Looking at these recommendations, you might think they’d be good ideas for your male workers as well. That’s just the point. When creating a female friendly operation, you’re embracing new ideas that will help your business succeed. Look back just 10 years, and you’d see a collision repair industry full of gloom and doom, with many repairers wishing they’d gone into a different line of work. Today, the industry is vibrant and growing. What changed was the infusion of new ideas and ways of thinking and doing business.

Making the industry more welcoming to women is just one more step in that process. Taking it will make your business a far better one, and one that should be thriving for some time to come.

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